How I make my silver charms

Hi everyone, I’ve had a few requests to show how I make some of the silver charms that I hang on my mixed-media pages and mini books. I showed these on previous videos and so I just thought I'd share some of the more basic techniques here and some of the materials that you will need for those.

So most of my silver charm bracelets start with one of these, which is a head pin and it's like an ordinary pin and you've got the pin head there which stops your beads falling off, but obviously it hasn't got the sharp end like a real pin would and I tend to use the longer ones, which are 50 millimetre or two inches long and just because it's less fiddly. You can buy an inch long and various sizes and but I find them quite fiddly to work with any smaller, so the two inch ones or the 50 millimetre is what I would normally use and they come in a range of colours.

So you've got your gold and silver, antique gold, bronze and there's a black one as well that I’ve seen, and so it depends what type of project that you're working on, as to what you'd need and the one I'm going to show you how to make is this one here. The head pin runs through the centre, you can't really see the tip of it there because I’ve got an extra bead at the bottom, and then you attach your beads and obviously whatever type of fastening or clasp at the top. So to make this particular one then, I start with a spacer bead, which these are three millimetre spacer beads and again you can buy these in the various colours to match your findings and the reason you might need those and firstly, obviously as the name suggests, they create a bit of space between your main beads. If you are using expensive beads, then obviously you'd want to space those apart a little bit, but if you're using a large bead like this, you often find the holes are too big to stay on with the tip of your head pin. So you'd use a spacer bead at the bottom, just to make sure that's secure.

So I'm going to thread my first and spacer bead onto the head pin and then I'm going to thread my main bead, which is a lamp work bead, this is 20 millimetre lamp work bead, and then I'm going to add another one of the round spacer beads. The same as the one at the bottom. The next type of bead I used on here, these are also spacer beads, but these are a different type, these are daisy spacer beads and these particular ones I think are three mil or four mil. So quite small beads, I'm going to take one of those and this basically is to frame, the next coloured bead, which you can see that the pink coloured bead there and this one is the natural gemstone beads.

You can see those two well and it's rhodolite and it goes particularly well with the heart-shaped bead that shows. So I'm going to thread the rhodolite bead onto there and then another, have the daisy spacer beads, and then to finish I'm going to use another one of the silver spacer beads. So you can use whatever type of beads that you have, I tend to use a lot of the gemstone, natural gemstone beads, but they can be quite expensive and I also use a lot of the Swarovski crystals, which again can be expensive and so if you're just practicing, you might want to start with maybe acrylic or glass beads which tend to be cheaper.

The next thing you need, you do need some quality jewellery pliers for this. These are round nose pliers because the ends of them are rounded and that's what you need to form a loop at the top, before you add any attachments. The other type you can get are called flat nose pliers, which obviously are, flat inside but these ones you just grasp with the tip of your plier, and then you literally take your finger and Bend your head pin around there and then remove your pliers and you will need some wire cutters. Mine came in a set, you can buy these a reasonable price in a set, you've got everything you need and then what you need to do is just nip the wire and so you've got enough wire to form a loop and join it together. So I'm just going to nip that there and then you take your round nose pliers again, this is going to be a little bit tricky, I'm trying to do it in film but you need to take your round nose pliers, right at the very ends, trying to focus the camera. I don't think it's going to focus too well so close up, but you nip them right near the end and you need to just twist them so that that loop will join together.

I'm just trying to do this quickly and then you need just to make sure that that loop is closed and it's going to hold those beads in place and then you can manipulate it if you're not quite happy, it's not straight and you can obviously manipulate a little bit, but just make sure that it has actually closed up at the top and sometimes I do take my flat nose pliers at this point as well, and just flatten it a little bit and close the loop a bit more at the bottom.

It is probably the trickiest part, but with a little bit of practice it's you can do it relatively quickly. The next thing we want to take our jump rings, these are open jump rings which means when you twist them they're going to open. This one has just been partially opened, what's important when you're using the jump rings you don't pull them apart that way, you actually twist them and towards you to open them. Okay so they look like that when they're open and then you can hook onto here, obviously it needs to go on the loop on your charm and then if you've got any clasps or fastenings that you need to go on. For mine I tend to use 12 mil lobster clasps and but obviously it could be jewellery finding or anything like that and to make earrings and or whatever it is that you’re doing, and once you've got it on your jump ring, then you use your jump ring to attach where you've just formed that hook with your head pin and then you would twist it closed again. Just twist it until it shuts and then you have your finished charm.

Okay probably take a bit more time on yours, the other type you can use, you can use these, all the findings called eye pins. These have a loop in them already and I use these if I want to make something that looks a bit longer and dangly, and these have got jump rings in between. So I'd start off again exactly the same way. I'd start with and one of the eye pins, got one out and probably start with taking these beads. So you start with your beads and then you might want to add possibly a spacer bead in between, and this time instead of adding lots more beads, you might as I say, might add your spacer bead, but not much more. You'd form your loop straight away, you would cut that off, okay and then before you close your and loop, you'd want to attach a jump ring onto there or you can add your jump ring afterwards. Perhaps it might be easier if you beginning to close your loop and then add your jump ring, so I’ll show you how to do that and just close your loop as you did before. Then you need your jump ring, which you need to twist as we said before, twist to open, put it onto the loop and then you would take your head pin and also attach that, then close your loop.

So you're starting to get that more jingly effect, then you would take your next bead and you do exactly the same thing, it make your loop okay, cuts it and close it and then you'd carry on with the next one. So you'd put another jump ring onto there, another eye pin onto there and carry on until you've got as many charms on there as you actually want and it would look very long. One look, something like that with the same finishing technique at the top, so I hope that's been useful for somebody. I do hope it's focused enough because it's quite detailed and please leave a comment if you want any more information on supplies or techniques or anything. Ok thank you for watching bye.

Gold Charms - Thomas Sabo vs. Pandora

Hi everyone welcome to the first instalment of our comparison reviews. Today we'll be taking a look at Thomas Sabo karma charms versus Pandora essence. Alright, now let's take a look at the jewellery. So as you can see, I’ve got my stack on right now and I’ve got the Pandora essence here, my Pandora bangle with all my lucky charms. The Thomas Sabo karma gold charms and another Pandora essence bracelet, as you can tell the Thomas Sabo blends in really well. The charms are about the same size as the Pandora. Now let's take a look at how they compare together.

The clasps are the same, so they open the same way. The Thomas Sabo chain is different than the Pandora essence. It's got this box link system. Take a closer look at that and it's very flexible, so I’m never afraid that it's going to get a kink or break or anything like that. The Pandora essence of course is a thinner version of the regular snake chain. It's relatively delicate, so I don't mess with it too much. It's still very fluid though so it can bend a lot more than the regular bracelet can. Alright so again the karma charms, they do not have stoppers or anything like that inside, so they do slip around a lot. So I highly recommend getting these stoppers at the end. At least one on each end, so that they don't fall off the bracelet. It's especially dangerous when you unclasp the bracelet and then all the charms can get everywhere.

Alright, so let's take a look at these charms. So again if you don't have, if you don't have the starbursts at the end will just fall off like that and that would be pretty heartbreaking if they fell on the floor. The Pandora essence has a stopper core inside, it is close up of that so that catches on the bracelet and holds four it holds pretty well. I haven't had problems with them moving too much, but they still do move around a little bit. Now this Thomas Sabo bracelet collection came out a little over a month ago and the Pandora essence is still also relatively new, it came out last fall. Stores, concept stores have had these since fall last year but other different types of stores are just now getting these in stock and that'll be in April. So if you haven't been able to see them, if you don't have a concept store near you, your chance will be coming up.

So I ended up getting two of the essence bracelets already, you can fill them up all the way, but I generally like to just fill them in with a few. I've kind of maxed out at six on each of my bracelets so I might end up getting more if more charms come out that I want. Alright so a lot of you ladies are curious as to how these are compatible or if they are. The Pandora essence obviously does not fit on the Thomas Sabo, because as you can see the stopper core prevents it from going in. However it does fit the other way around and the Thomas Sabo charms, you know they are, they do vary a little bit in size.

So you've got the bigger open works versus the smaller charms, they are all hollow so they're really light. So the entire bracelet is very light, I would say comparatively the Pandora essence feels heavier. One of my favourite charms is the karma life logo. All right that one's really cool, I really like that one a lot. All right, so the Pandora essence of course they pull off just like that and then they you put them back just like threading a needle. So I’m just going to take all these off and combine them with the Thomas Sabo karma charms for a great look and this way you actually get some fluid movement. As well as the stoppers stopping them in place, so I actually think this is a really good combination.

I'm just going to put a few on here, the only problem with the Thomas Sabo line is that I don't really have any stores around me, so I actually had to get my bracelets from overseas. I got these at Joshua James from the UK, there's no shipping restrictions though so they do ship outside of the UK and that's how it looks together. It looks actually pretty great, so I’m relatively happy with combining them but for the sake of, you know, keeping all the brand separate, I do have a little bit of OCD about that, so I do tend to segregate my brand lines. Otherwise the clasps are relatively similar, the karma charms class is perhaps a shade, let's get to focus in on that, is perhaps a shade bigger than the Pandora essence. It's not that close for you to see and I would say the Thomas Sabo is a little more difficult to get on, just because the knob, the latch at the end, does not catch as well.

So that always gives me a little bit of trouble but not too much. Whereas the Pandora clasp really well and then you can see it stays in place. All right, so all in all, I really like both these brands. I've never really been interested in Thomas Sabo until now between the high prices and their traditional dangled brick charm bracelet. I haven't really, you know, nothing's really caught my eye from that brand but I was really excited about the karma charms collection because you know it is a European style charm bracelet and the price points pretty reasonable. From the charms are usually about $25 to $125, of course depending on how much bling it has and detailing and silver of course. They also come in different finishes like gold and rose gold, which Pandora does not offer and of course they have cz’s as well.

The Pandora essence, the charms are you know semi-precious gemstones as well as silver and then detailed with cz’s. There's some really pretty designs, but I kind of do a combination of picking aspirations I like, characteristics I like and also are that a reflective of me and also ones that have pretty design. So and that's it for the comparison between the Thomas Sabo karma charms and the Pandora essence collection. If you have any other questions head on over to the blog and post them there. Otherwise I hope this was helpful and I’ll see you soon.